Rock, Paper, Shotgun has word that From Dustdoes indeed require a constant internet connection to play, in spite of assurances from Ubisoft directly to us and VG247 that the god game would not use this form of DRM (we were told "You will not need to be connected online when playing From Dust's single player campaign and challenge modes"). requires connecting to the internet every time the game is launched, and there are comments on RPS from readers who claim they've been able to get refunds for the game through Steam based on the misrepresentation of the game's DRM. Updated: Apologies for the initial misinterpretation of this, as the game does not require a constant internet connection. The uproar is actually over the game needing to validate over the internet to launch each time it plays. This is apparently a contradiction to some previous forum posts, but is not necessarily inconsistent with what we were told about the game's DRM. Our sincere apologies for the error, and its unnecessary contribution to the uproar over this.

We've been looking at new homes lately and I have yet to see one wired for RJ45. Even the upgraded-to-hell-and-back model homes haven't had that. They do sometimes come pre-wired for surround-sound systems.

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell (I think...)

Rockn-Roll wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 12:56:All new buildings...both home and business...are wired for electricity (110 or 220), phone (RJ11), and network (RJ45).

a) Not true, a relative is having a new building built at this very moment for a home and its NOT going to have RJ45 in it.b) Even if that were true, it doesn't mean we have good broadband (or even broadband at all) going to that network plug. South Korea and Japan have us beat all silly in that regard. Despite the promises from phone companies that that by years ago we WOULD indeed have all houses wired with broadband (promises in return for fed funding and tax breaks).

Rockn-Roll wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 12:56:In the vast majority of livable areas in the world an internet connection is available and affordable (though about 1/2 of those connections don't have high speed yet) and sometimes cheaper than a phone.

Ehh, you might want to go have a look at the Broadband census data, and you'll rapidly reconsider that statement. Not only is it not widely available (not counting beyond-shitty satellite connections that are worse than dial-up) but it is FAR from affordable. In most areas, the CHEAPEST plans are 50 bucks a month. That may not be a lot of money to you, but to quite a lot of people 600 bucks a year is a significant investment.

It's great that you have affordable internet where you live. That doesn't somehow then translate to "Hell, the whole world has cheap, affordable internet!"

Requiring people to always be online for a single player game is fucking horseshit.

I really wasn't interested in Dust...mostly because it does look like a console game. But, I hope it's obvious that an internet connection has become a standard fixture. All new buildings...both home and business...are wired for electricity (110 or 220), phone (RJ11), and network (RJ45). In the vast majority of livable areas in the world an internet connection is available and affordable (though about 1/2 of those connections don't have high speed yet) and sometimes cheaper than a phone.

Software has to have some sort of DRM and currently the least problematic is to validate through the internet. And, the internet has a great feature of allowing the software to save game progress and achievements online...a win/win scenario. However, what I don't understand is why they don't simply use Steam which allows a completely offline mode...for some reason some game companies spend extra time to develop their own DRM scheme...most likely 100 hours. Which is really dumb because it only takes about 1 hour for a hacker to bypass it.

All a DRM needs to do is set limits on how the software is used...typically requiring that every computer running an instance of the software have a unique license.

However, in the case of ubisoft, it looks like UBI is dumping PC support, for example Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is not going to be ported to the PC at all and Ghost Recon Online will be 3rd person only.

Plus, I took a look at the ubisoft forum and it does look like Dust has been ported to the PC without any decent testing. One of the most telling and obvious indications of a bad port is crashing due to graphics problems at startup because the initial default graphics setting is to force full-screen using invalid uncommon full-screen settings for PC systems. Windowed is the most stable PC graphics setting and allows the most variety of settings while full-screen requires that the settings match the limited settings available for the user's hardware and software. It looks like Dust is crashing on startup for a lot of users and ubisoft is trying to claim that it's because their PC doesn't have good enough hardware.

Good PC ports will popup a small graphics settings application before launching the game which allows the user to specify what settings their system will work best. But, it doesn't even need that...all that a port needs to do is start the game windowed and the initial crashes would stop. That's been true for the last 5 years, but game companies have yet to catch on...indicating that they totally ignore PC support problems otherwise they would have listened to us and fixed that situation. There is nothing worse that a game that flat will not start at all.

I think one of the reasons game companies don't do something to fix PC support out of the box is that they convince users to update their drivers...when drivers are installed the graphics are set to a default configuration and then the game works OK. Ever since I started running a triple monitor setup I get a crash on startup from every game that was ported to the PC...when that happens I add "-windowed" to the command line options or find the configuration file and set the initial graphics to windowed then the game starts up OK.

Prez wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 08:42:It's not Blue who needs to be apologizing for the confusion - it's Ubisoft. They have been acting so stupidly it's sometimes hard to imagine how they became successful in the first place.

Seriously, there's virtually no difference. So they won't boot you from the game if your internet connection goes out while you're playing it; how kind. If the cloud sync save thing is true they might as well boot you when your connection dies. This is just jackass MBA double speak, 'I said you didn't always needed to be connected, I didn't say you don't always have to be connected to start playing the game. TEEHEE ain't I a stinker *eat shit grin*'

I can only hope blue has some invisible sarcasm tags with his apology, because he really didn't need to.

I've been eyeing Dust as a possible purchase, but not after this, at least not until they clear up the DRM/Cloud/whatever issues.

webname wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 04:22:And whats the deal with steam users, surely they cant care steam is precisely the same disease , gotta go online suck down updates (open wide we are gonna drain your cap ) or play on lan it requires the net as well. Seems rather ironic to me ??

You can't be serious. You can play most games offline with steam and if your internet connection is so bad then I guess it's time to get a new provider or just suck up the fact you live in a crappy area.

Tomas wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 01:00:I'm a proud non-purchaser (non-consumer too for those obnoxious few of you who assume that means I must be pirating their stuff) of all Ubi products since their first mention of this abuse of their customer base began.

I wonder how many others like me are out there and whether this DRM really is helping Ubi in the long run.

Me, too. I don't steal the games, and I don't buy them either. There are tons of games out there; I don't need to give my money to the companies whose policies I disagree with.

webname wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 04:22:And whats the deal with steam users, surely they cant care steam is precisely the same disease , gotta go online suck down updates (open wide we are gonna drain your cap ) or play on lan it requires the net as well. Seems rather ironic to me ??

You CAN play offline with most steam games (can't really do it with most multiplayer modes, but since you are online when doing multiplayer its kinda a moot point). You can also set games to never update if you don't want it to use your cap. Then if you need a particular game to update, change the setting on it to update again.

As for LAN, it depends on the game. For instance with Terarria on LAN, I do NOT have to go online on steam to play it on my LAN.

Dirwulf wrote on Aug 18, 2011, 22:39:I bought the game on Xbox before all this went down. Its too bad they fucked up the PC version, because its a pretty good game. Its not really made for a controller though. I would have loved to have seen it on PC. Maybe in 6 months when they remove the DRM and its on a Steam sale for $5.

Wishful thinking. Still hasn't happened with settlers 7, and I think thats going over a year now?

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 07:07:It validates because it syncs the saves on exit and start - saves are saved online.... when you lose connections it tries to sync (on exit ) until it has connection or waits till you start again.

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 07:07:It validates because it syncs the saves on exit and start - saves are saved online.... when you lose connections it tries to sync (on exit ) until it has connection or waits till you start again.

So i am wondering if people confuse the cloud sync function with drm

Your head is in the clouds, or up your ass.

Cloud sync was Ubi's way to 'justify' the always on, or check every launch DRM systems.

eRe4s3r wrote on Aug 19, 2011, 07:07:It validates because it syncs the saves on exit and start - saves are saved online.... when you lose connections it tries to sync (on exit ) until it has connection or waits till you start again.

So i am wondering if people confuse the cloud sync function with drm

I absolutely hate this crap... so if you lose your internet connection mid-game, any game progress after that is going to be lost cause the thing can't sync to the cloud. Brutal